Obituary

Ellis Birk

Ellis Birk, who was a senior board member of the original Mirror Group during the powerhouse days of chairman Cecil King and Hugh Cudlipp, editorial boss of the entire group, and, in his own right, a figure of great influence in old Fleet Street and television, has died aged 88. Indeed, so powerful was Birk's presence in those days of Mirror supremacy that it was he who played the crucial role in dethroning "The King" following his attempt to remove Harold Wilson from his premiership in 1968.

The story is worth re-telling: Birk was spending time in his home town of Newcastle upon Tyne when Cudlipp, always a close friend and ally, phoned to spell out the contents of the Daily Mirror front page of May 10 1968. Its headline read: "Enough is Enough" - above a sensational piece written and signed by King demanding Wilson's dismissal by his own government and removal from 10 Downing Street.

Birk's response to this was instant. He told Cudlipp, "You must stop this, Hugh. If that goes in the paper it will do immense damage to the whole Mirror Group. Cecil must be stopped." Cudlipp told Birk that it was too late to stop the front-page article and that King had effectively taken command of the paper. Birk's reaction was devastating: "In that case, King must go - and you, Hugh, must ensure that this happens. If Cecil stays I will resign from the board."

The rest is history: King was sacked and Birk remained in power. To this day there remains one closely kept secret about that episode: Cudlipp succeeded King as chairman of Mirror Group - yet did not relish the job. Cudlipp, the genius of tabloid journalism, always preferred his role as editorial director and deputy chairman. He wanted Birk to take over King's role as chairman, leaving him to look after the Mirror Group's journalism rather than the financial complexities; Cudlipp always confessed he was not suited to that side of Fleet Street. Yet it was Birk who insisted that the chairmanship role must go to Cudlipp. Birk preferred to remain in the background - ever his choice - where his advice, discretion and immense legal skills had already made a significant contribution to sustaining the extraordinary success of the group in the 1960s when the Daily Mirror's circulation enjoyed world record figures: in 1967 it reached 5,288,137.

Birk had joined the Mirror hierarchy as a board director of the Sunday Pictorial (forerunner of the Sunday Mirror) in 1950. He was a highly skilled lawyer and a senior partner in the city firm of Nicholson, Graham and Jones, having joined them in 1946, after war service. Their clients included Sir John Ellerman, owner of Ellerman shipping lines, and head of one of the then largest conglomerates in the world. Sir John had substantial holdings in the Mirror Group - and his trusted nominee there was Birk, who was emerging as one of the City's top legal brains. He was also a director of Associated Television in the pioneer days of commercial TV.

The early 1950s was the period that drew Cudlipp and Birk together in a relationship that was to last their lifetime. Cudlipp returned to the Mirror Group from Express Newspapers when King took over in 1952. He became editor of the Sunday Pictorial, where he met Birk. Before long, they formed an unshakeable partnership that matured into a lifebelt for the group, especially at times when King's megalomania threatened its stability. They secretly nicknamed themselves "the Fire Brigade" - a two-man rescue squad seeking to control (and protect) King. Their "secret" role remained hidden - until King tried to unseat Harold Wilson, at which point all Fleet Street came a touch closer to understanding what was going on behind the closed doors of the Mirror's old Holborn Circus headquarters. Birk remained an influential force there until Robert Maxwell took over the group in July 1984.

Birk was born in Newcastle, the son of a prosperous banker and financial dealer who was an immigrant from Ritova, Lithuania. His father was a devout Jew and a lay leader of the early Jewish community on Tyneside. The young Ellis found his father's fervent Zionism overpowering and became an early rebel; he was also deeply influenced by the depression on Tyneside in the early 1930s, which steered him to the left.

Even later, after prep school and Clifton College, and then to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read classics and law, Ellis spent much of his vacation time working among the unemployed in the mining communities of the north-east. He joined the Labour party and remained a member to the end, describing himself as "a Gaitskellite socialist".

There always seemed two strands to Birk's religious commitment: his early rebelliousness, which was encouraged by his love for rugby as well as politics; and his later return to the orthodoxies of his early home environment. Birk was a big man, over 6ft, powerfully built and an outstanding rugby player. But at Clifton College, where he was in Polack's (Jewish) House, he was barred from Saturday games, so special arrangements were made to enable him to win his school colours - which he did on 15 occasions - and which later led him into the Cambridge University team.

At that stage he was a member of the Jewish Reform community, but later he returned to traditional Judaism. When he was appointed chairman of the Jewish Welfare Board in 1982, he had already served as its treasurer for many years, and with a long record as a founder of numerous Jewish Youth centres - notably the Redbridge Youth and Community Centre, where he chaired the council for 25 years. He was a director of the Jewish Chronicle from 1956, and became chairman of its board in 1987; he was a member of the executive committee and a governor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and chairman of its group of British Friends; he was chairman of the finance and general purposes committee of the Institute of Jewish Affairs; and on the executive of the Council of Christians and Jews.

Birk's wife, Alma, whom he married in 1939, was a journalist and academic, who became a member of Harold Wilson's government in 1974 as under secretary of state at the environment ministry. Appointed life baroness in 1967, she died in December 1996. They had a son, David, and daughter Angela, who survive him.

During the war, Birk served with the Royal Artillery, rising from the ranks to major. After D-Day he was appointed instructor in the art of using flame-throwing equipment from tanks - a skill which, perhaps, may have come in useful during his "Fire Brigade" work at the Mirror group in later years.

· Ellis Samuel Birk, lawyer and newspaper, television and business executive, born October 30 1915; died July 3 2004

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.